ISLAND BACKGAMMON

If one believes that the entire series was a symbolic representation of the ancient game of backgammon between Jacob and MIB, then this is how the board must have looked at the beginning of the game. Jacob's candidates would have been white pieces and MIB and his evil converts the black pieces.

But if we go to the End Game, how did the pieces finally land on the board?

Everyone who died on the island would have been put on the center board (death). Only Sawyer and Kate would have traversed the island sections to leave the board at their finish. Hurley would have remained on the island as the new guardian, along side Ben.  In this representation, Widmore and Eloise would remain in their former heavenly positions of manipulating the candidates around the board.

This final position leads to three separate conclusions. It could represent that Hurley would be the new Jacob and Ben the new MIB, the actual players controlling new pieces that would have to be brought to the island. Or it could represent that the original immortals, Jacob and MIB, would merely re-set their board for another game. Or it could represent an actual end, as two white pieces actually escaped the confines of the board, with no other white pieces (other than Hurley who assumed a new role) left on the island. In the centuries of contests, this result may have been the first time that any candidates were able to escape the island, making Jacob the ultimate victor. What that victory meant is unknown. It could mean that Jacob finally got to die and move on to internal peace. Or it could mean that Jacob had to start all over again (on the island or someplace else) if he was the jailor of the evil spirit, MIB, who was finally defeated in this game.